Monthly Archives: December 2011

For many generations, humans have known that toxic plant compounds can be used to poison the tips of arrows, spears and other weapons, vastly increasing the lethality of an attack. The indigenous peoples of South America are perhaps the most famous (or infamous) for this strategy, and the use of curare-tipped arrows (Lee 2005) achieved legendary status after Europeans invaded that continent. A similar strategy is used by some African communities (Cassels 1985), which take advantage of the natural substances... Read more